Ella White was among the passengers of the RMS Titanic who escaped the sinking ship on a lifeboat. It was a very dark night, and the lanterns the lifeboat had were worthless. It was White's high-tech cane that came to the rescue then, as it had a small battery-operated light that shone just bright enough for the lifeboat to steer its way.
Like many other survivors, White, then 55, boarded the Titanic as a first-class passenger. She was traveling with her companion, a 36-year-old piano teacher named Marie Grice Young, along with several exotic chickens from France that they planned to breed in their Westchester mansion. They’d been on vacation in Europe and had chosen to return to America on a ship called the RMS Titanic, which was about to make its maiden voyage, according to Guernsey’s listing.
White had injured her foot during her travels, but she’d acquired a rather snazzy cane to help her keep her balance. The enameled black cane looks pretty simple at first glance, but its amber-colored bakelite head—made from the world’s first synthetic plastic—held a tiny, battery-powered light. This technology may seem kitschy by today’s standards, but it was cutting-edge technology in 1912, a mere 33 years after Thomas Edison had invented the electric light bulb.
Ella and all the lifeboat passengers with her survived the sinking of the Titanic. She died in 1942, and left her fortune to Young. But some of her personal possessions apparently went to relatives, which caused some trouble. White's great-grandnephew Brad Williams has listed White's historic cane for auction with Guernsey Auctions. Another of White's great-grandnephews, John Hoving, challenged the auction, saying the cane was stolen from his family in the 1970s. The auction will proceed on July 19. Read about the controversial cane and its history at Atlas Obscura.
(Image Courtesy of liveauctioneers.com)